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Introduction to Laravel framework

Laravel is an open-source PHP framework, which is robust and easy to understand. It follows a
model-view-controller design pattern. Laravel reuses the existing components of different
frameworks which helps in creating a web application. The web application thus designed is
more structured and pragmatic.

Laravel offers a rich set of functionalities which incorporates the basic features of PHP
frameworks like CodeIgniter, Yii and other programming languages like Ruby on Rails. Laravel
has a very rich set of features which will boost the speed of web development.

If you are familiar with Core PHP and Advanced PHP, Laravel will make your task easier. It
saves a lot time if you are planning to develop a website from scratch. Moreover, a website built
in Laravel is secure and prevents several web attacks.

Advantages of Laravel

Laravel offers you the following advantages, when you are designing a web application based on
it −

• The web application becomes more scalable, owing to the Laravel framework.
• Considerable time is saved in designing the web application, since Laravel reuses the
components from other framework in developing web application.
• It includes namespaces and interfaces, thus helps to organize and manage resources.

Composer

Composer is a tool which includes all the dependencies and libraries. It allows a user to create a
project with respect to the mentioned framework (for example, those used in Laravel
installation). Third party libraries can be installed easily with help of composer.

All the dependencies are noted in composer.json file which is placed in the source folder.

Artisan

Command line interface used in Laravel is called Artisan. It includes a set of commands which
assists in building a web application. These commands are incorporated from Symphony
framework, resulting in add-on features in Laravel 5.1 (latest version of Laravel).

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Features of Laravel

Laravel offers the following key features which makes it an ideal choice for designing web
applications −
Modularity
Laravel provides 20 built in libraries and modules which helps in enhancement of the
application. Every module is integrated with Composer dependency manager which eases
updates.
Testability
Laravel includes features and helpers which helps in testing through various test cases. This
feature helps in maintaining the code as per the requirements.
Routing
Laravel provides a flexible approach to the user to define routes in the web application. Routing
helps to scale the application in a better way and increases its performance.
Configuration Management
A web application designed in Laravel will be running on different environments, which means
that there will be a constant change in its configuration. Laravel provides a consistent approach
to handle the configuration in an efficient way.
Query Builder and ORM
Laravel incorporates a query builder which helps in querying databases using various simple
chain methods. It provides ORM (Object Relational Mapper) and ActiveRecord implementation
called Eloquent.
Schema Builder
Schema Builder maintains the database definitions and schema in PHP code. It also maintains a
track of changes with respect to database migrations.
Template Engine
Laravel uses the Blade Template engine, a lightweight template language used to design
hierarchical blocks and layouts with predefined blocks that include dynamic content.
E-mail
Laravel includes a mail class which helps in sending mail with rich content and attachments
from the web application.
Authentication
User authentication is a common feature in web applications. Laravel eases designing
authentication as it includes features such as register, forgot password and send password
reminders.
Redis
Laravel uses Redis to connect to an existing session and general-purpose cache. Redis interacts
with session directly.
Queues
Laravel includes queue services like emailing large number of users or a specified Cron job.
These queues help in completing tasks in an easier manner without waiting for the previous task
to be completed.
Event and Command Bus
Laravel 5.1 includes Command Bus which helps in executing commands and dispatch events in
a simple way. The commands in Laravel act as per the application’s lifecycle.

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Laravel - Installation

For managing dependencies, Laravel uses composer. Make sure you have a Composer installed
on your system before you install Laravel. In this chapter, you will see the installation process of
Laravel.

You will have to follow the steps given below for installing Laravel onto your system −

Step 1 − Visit the following URL and download composer to install it on your system.

https://getcomposer.org/download/

Step 2 − After the Composer is installed, check the installation by typing the Composer
command in the command prompt as shown in the following screenshot.

Step 3 − Create a new directory anywhere in your system for your new Laravel project. After
that, move to path where you have

created the new directory and type the following command there to install Laravel.

composer create-project laravel/laravel –-prefer-dist

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Now, we will focus on installation of version 5.7. In Laravel version 5.7, you can install the
complete framework by typing the following command −

composer create-project laravel/laravel test dev-develop

The output of the command is as shown below −

The Laravel framework can be directly installed with develop branch which includes the latest
framework.

Step 4 − The above command will install Laravel in the current directory. Start the Laravel
service by executing the following command.

php artisan serve

Step 5 − After executing the above command, you will see a screen as shown below −

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Step 6 − Copy the URL underlined in gray in the above screenshot and open that URL in the
browser. If you see the following screen, it implies Laravel has been installed successfully.

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Laravel - Application Structure

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The application structure in Laravel is basically the structure of folders, sub-folders and files
included in a project. Once we create a project in Laravel, we get an overview of the application
structure as shown in the image here.

The snapshot shown here refers to the root folder of Laravel namely laravel-project. It includes
various sub-folders and files. The analysis of folders and files, along with their functional aspects
is given below −

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App

It is the application folder and includes the entire source code of the project. It contains events,
exceptions and middleware declaration. The app folder comprises various sub folders as
explained below −

Console

Console includes the artisan commands necessary for Laravel. It includes a directory
named Commands, where all the commands are declared with the appropriate signature. The
file Kernal.php calls the commands declared in Inspire.php.

If we need to call a specific command in Laravel, then we should make appropriate changes in
this directory.

Events

This folder includes all the events for the project.

Events are used to trigger activities, raise errors or necessary validations and provide greater
flexibility. Laravel keeps all the events under one directory. The default file included
is event.php where all the basic events are declared.

Exceptions

This folder contains all the methods needed to handle exceptions. It also contains the
file handle.php that handles all the exceptions.

Http

The Http folder has sub-folders for controllers, middleware and application requests. As Laravel
follows the MVC design pattern, this folder includes model, controllers and views defined for the
specific directories.

The Middleware sub-folder includes middleware mechanism, comprising the filter mechanism
and communication between response and request.

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The Requests sub-folder includes all the requests of the application.

Jobs

The Jobs directory maintains the activities queued for Laravel application. The base class is
shared among all the Jobs and provides a central location to place them under one roof.

Listeners

Listeners are event-dependent and they include methods which are used to handle events and
exceptions. For example, the login event declared includes a LoginListener event.

Policies

Policies are the PHP classes which includes the authorization logic. Laravel includes a feature to
create all authorization logic within policy classes inside this sub folder.

Providers

This folder includes all the service providers required to register events for core servers and to
configure a Laravel application.

Bootstrap

This folder encloses all the application bootstrap scripts. It contains a sub-folder namely cache,
which includes all the files associated for caching a web application. You can also find the
file app.php, which initializes the scripts necessary for bootstrap.

Config

The config folder includes various configurations and associated parameters required for the
smooth functioning of a Laravel application. Various files included within the config folder are
as shown in the image here. The filenames work as per the functionality associated with them.

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Database

As the name suggests, this directory includes various parameters for database functionalities. It
includes three sub-directories as given below −

• Seeds − This contains the classes used for unit testing database.
• Migrations − This folder helps in queries for migrating the database used in the web
application.
• Factories − This folder is used to generate large number of data records.

Public

It is the root folder which helps in initializing the Laravel application. It includes the following
files and folders −

• .htaccess − This file gives the server configuration.

• javascript and css − These files are considered as assets.
• index.php − This file is required for the initialization of a web application.

Resources

Resources directory contains the files which enhances your web application. The sub-folders
included in this directory and their purpose is explained below −

• assets − The assets folder include files such as LESS and SCSS, that are required for
styling the web application.
• lang − This folder includes configuration for localization or internalization.
• views − Views are the HTML files or templates which interact with end users and play a
primary role in MVC architecture.

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Observe that the resources directory will be flattened instead of having an assets folder. The
pictorial representation of same is shown below −

Storage

This is the folder that stores all the logs and necessary files which are needed frequently when a
Laravel project is running. The sub-folders included in this directory and their purpose is given
below −

• app − This folder contains the files that are called in succession.
• framework − It contains sessions, cache and views which are called frequently.
• Logs − All exceptions and error logs are tracked in this sub folder.

Tests

All the unit test cases are included in this directory. The naming convention for naming test case
classes is camel_case and follows the convention as per the functionality of the class.

Vendor

Laravel is completely based on Composer dependencies, for example to install Laravel setup or
to include third party libraries, etc. The Vendor folder includes all the composer dependencies.

In addition to the above mentioned files, Laravel also includes some other files which play a
primary role in various functionalities such as GitHub configuration, packages and third party
libraries.

The files included in the application structure are shown below −

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Laravel - Configuration

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In the previous chapter, we have seen that the basic configuration files of Laravel are included in
the config directory. In this chapter, let us discuss the categories included in the configuration.

Environment Configuration

Environment variables are those which provide a list of web services to your web application.
All the environment variables are declared in the .env file which includes the parameters
required for initializing the configuration.

By default, the .env file includes following parameters −

APP_ENV = local
APP_DEBUG = true
APP_KEY = base64:ZPt2wmKE/X4eEhrzJU6XX4R93rCwYG8E2f8QUA7kGK8 =
APP_URL = http://localhost
DB_CONNECTION = mysql

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DB_HOST = 127.0.0.1
DB_PORT = 3306
DB_DATABASE = homestead
DB_USERNAME = homestead
DB_PASSWORD = secret
CACHE_DRIVER = file
SESSION_DRIVER = file
QUEUE_DRIVER = sync
REDIS_HOST = 127.0.0.1
REDIS_PASSWORD = null
REDIS_PORT = 6379
MAIL_DRIVER = smtp
MAIL_HOST = mailtrap.ioMAIL_PORT = 2525
MAIL_USERNAME = null
MAIL_PASSWORD = null
MAIL_ENCRYPTION = null

Important Points

While working with basic configuration files of Laravel, the following points are to be noted −

• The .env file should not be committed to the application source control, since each
developer or user has some predefined environment configuration for the web
application.
• For backup options, the development team should include the .env.example file, which
should contain the default configuration.

Retrieval of Environment Variables

All the environment variables declared in the .env file can be accessed by env-helper functions
which will call the respective parameter. These variables are also listed into $_ENV global
variable whenever application receives a request from the user end. You can access the
environment variable as shown below −

'env' => env('APP_ENV', 'production'),

env-helper functions are called in the app.php file included in the config folder. The above
given example is calling for the basic local parameter.

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Accessing Configuration Values

You can easily access the configuration values anywhere in the application using the global
config helper function. In case if the configuration values are not initialized, default values are
returned.

For example, to set the default time zone, the following code is used −

config(['app.timezone' => 'Asia/Kolkata']);

Caching of Configuration

To increase the performance and to boost the web application, it is important to cache all the
configuration values. The command for caching the configuration values is −

config:cache

The following screenshot shows caching in a systematic approach −

Maintenance Mode

Sometimes you may need to update some configuration values or perform maintenance on your
website. In such cases, keeping it in maintenance mode, makes it easier for you. Such web
applications which are kept in maintenance mode, throw an exception
namely MaintenanceModeException with a status code of 503.

You can enable the maintenance mode on your Laravel web application using the following
command −

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php artisan down

The following screenshot shows how the web application looks when it is down −

Once you finish working on updates and other maintenance, you can disable the maintenance
mode on your web application using following command −

php artisan up

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Now, you can find that the website shows the output with proper functioning and depicting that
the maintenance mode is now removed as shown below −

Laravel - Routing

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Next

In Laravel, all requests are mapped with the help of routes. Basic routing routes the request to the
associated controllers. This chapter discusses routing in Laravel.

Routing in Laravel includes the following categories −

• Basic Routing
• Route parameters
• Named Routes

Basic Routing

All the application routes are registered within the app/routes.php file. This file tells Laravel for
the URIs it should respond to and the associated controller will give it a particular call. The
sample route for the welcome page can be seen as shown in the screenshot given below −

Route::get ('/', function () {

return view('welcome');});

Example

Observe the following example to understand more about Routing −

app/Http/routes.php

<?php
Route::get('/', function () {
return view('welcome');
});

resources/view/welcome.blade.php

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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Laravel</title>
<link href = "https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Lato:100" rel = "stylesheet"
type = "text/css">

<style>
html, body {
height: 100%;
}
body {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
width: 100%;
display: table;
font-weight: 100;
font-family: 'Lato';
}
.container {
text-align: center;
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
.content {
text-align: center;
display: inline-block;
}
.title {
font-size: 96px;
}
</style>
</head>

<body>
<div class = "container">

<div class = "content">

<div class = "title">Laravel 5.1</div>
</div>

</div>
</body>
</html>

The routing mechanism is shown in the image given below −

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Let us now understand the steps involved in routing mechanism in detail −

Step 1 − Initially, we should execute the root URL of the application.

Step 2 − Now, the executed URL should match with the appropriate method in
the route.php file. In the present case, it should match the method and the root (‘/’) URL. This
will execute the related function.

Step 3 − The function calls the template file resources/views/welcome.blade.php. Next, the
function calls the view() function with argument ‘welcome’ without using the blade.php.

This will produce the HTML output as shown in the image below −

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Route Parameters

Sometimes in the web application, you may need to capture the parameters passed with the URL.
For this, you should modify the code in routes.php file.

You can capture the parameters in routes.php file in two ways as discussed here −

Required Parameters

These parameters are those which should be mandatorily captured for routing the web
application. For example, it is important to capture the user’s identification number from the
URL. This can be possible by defining route parameters as shown below −

Route::get('ID/{id}',function($id) {
echo 'ID: '.$id;
});

Optional Parameters

Sometimes developers can produce parameters as optional and it is possible with the inclusion
of ? after the parameter name in URL. It is important to keep the default value mentioned as a
parameter name. Look at the following example that shows how to define an optional parameter
−

Route::get('user/{name?}', function ($name = 'TutorialsPoint') { return $name;});

The example above checks if the value matches to TutorialsPoint and accordingly routes to the
defined URL.

Named Routes

Named routes allow a convenient way of creating routes. The chaining of routes can be specified
using name method onto the route definition. The following code shows an example for creating
named routes with controller

Route::get('user/profile', 'UserController@showProfile')->name('profile');

The user controller will call for the function showProfile with parameter as profile. The
parameters use name method onto the route definition.

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